United States v. Mink
| Decision Date | 12 August 2021 |
| Docket Number | No. 19-3683,19-3683 |
| Citation | 9 F.4th 590 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff - Appellee v. Chad Eric MINK, also known as Chad Mink, Defendant - Appellant |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
Clifford R. Cronk, Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney's Office, Davenport, IA, Andrew H. Kahl, Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney's Office, Des Moines, IA, for Plaintiff-Appellee.
Mark C. Meyer, Kinnamon & Kinnamon, Cedar Rapids, IA, for Defendant-Appellant.
Chad Eric Mink, Pine Knot, KY, Pro Se.
Before SHEPHERD, ERICKSON, and KOBES, Circuit Judges.
A jury found Chad Eric Mink guilty on all counts of a 15-count indictment, and the district court sentenced him to 600 months imprisonment. Mink appeals his convictions and sentence. Having jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we vacate Mink's conviction on Count 8, affirm his convictions on the remaining counts, and vacate his sentence in its entirety so that the district court may reconfigure Mink's sentencing plan to guarantee that his sentence satisfies the 18 U.S.C. § 3553 factors.
"We recite the facts in the light most favorable to the jury's verdict." United States v. Galloway, 917 F.3d 631, 632 (8th Cir. 2019) (citation omitted).
This case arises out of Mink's incessant and extreme harassment of his ex-girlfriend, L.L., and her partner, D.B., after Mink and L.L.’s relationship ended in 2013.1 The events began on October 11, 2013, when Mink allegedly stabbed L.L. in the ear with a fork while she was asleep. Mink told law enforcement that L.L. had been drinking and must have fallen on the fork, but a preliminary breath test revealed L.L.’s blood alcohol concentration to be 0.000. On November 14, 2013, D.B. discovered that someone had vandalized his car while parked at "Group O," an Illinois business where D.B. and L.L. worked. That same day, L.L. noticed a strong odor in her house: someone had placed mothballs near the furnace and blocked the exhaust pipe with plumber's putty. The following day, a Group O employee witnessed a red box truck drive around the business and leave. That evening, as L.L. and D.B. were returning from their break together, that same truck collided with D.B.’s car, damaging the driver's side. The truck entered a nearby field, and the driver fled the scene on foot. Responding to the incident, law enforcement stopped a nearby van. Mink was in the backseat wearing wet, muddy clothes and Adidas-brand shoes, matching the shoe impressions taken near the abandoned truck. Mink told law enforcement that he had been walking home from a nearby bar and called the van's driver for a ride. Later, Mink changed his story, telling law enforcement that he had permission to drive the box truck; however, subsequent investigation revealed that the truck had been stolen from a Davenport business. A day later, on November 16, 2013, L.L.’s sister discovered a "pipe bomb"—a steel pipe with endcaps containing an oily residue, a balloon, and some aluminum foil—in the backseat of her car. After this incident, L.L. moved with D.B. from her Milan, Illinois residence to Davenport, Iowa, near the Holy Family Cemetery (HFC).
Mink was employed at "Fol-Da-Tank," a Milan, Illinois business. One of Mink's coworkers, a Leclaire, Iowa resident, kept a Springfield XD .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol in his truck and claimed that Mink was aware of the pistol. The coworker later reported the pistol missing. On November 18, 2013, Mink reported that his van was shot at while driving to work and told law enforcement that he suspected D.B. had been the shooter, among other possible suspects. Law enforcement later recovered two Hornady "Zombie Max" .45 caliber bullets from Mink's van. Mink subsequently told another individual that he shot his own van, blamed it on D.B., and buried the pistol.
On April 14, 2014, a groundskeeper at Rock Island High School, located in Rock Island, Illinois, discovered a white trash bag containing 19 books, including:
R. Doc. 220, 70-80. These books contained information such as how to build pipe bombs and other explosives, how to create a silencer, and how to puncture the ear in such a way that causes severe pain. A fingerprint examiner determined that one of the latent fingerprints discovered on the books was left by Mink, and Mink later admitted to law enforcement that the books were his and that he had read them.
On March 19, 2015, a man was searching for shed deer antlers at HFC when he discovered a blue drawstring backpack. Upon inspecting the bag, the man identified what he believed to be pipe bombs inside. The man notified law enforcement, and the Quad City Bomb Squad responded to the scene. Subsequent investigation determined that the backpack contained three 12-inch, galvanized steel pipes with 1.25-inch endcaps, which were drilled for the insertion of a fuse. One pipe had a set of alternating nails attached by colored rubber bands and black zip ties and was additionally wrapped with a strand of more than 200 hex nuts. This pipe further contained a circuit board, an Estes-brand model rocket igniter system, and a black powder—presumably Pyrodex, an explosive substance recovered from a Ziplock bag in the backpack. A subsequent laboratory examination established that the pipes were destructive devices. Law enforcement also discovered in the backpack six rounds of Hornady "Zombie Max" .45 caliber ammunition, one expended cartridge casing of the same ammunition, and a white trash bag matching the one containing the 19 books. On April 5, 2019, a "treasure hunter," who canvassed public areas with a metal detector, discovered a .45 caliber pistol wrapped in black garbage bags and duct tape buried near Rock Island High School. Law enforcement later determined that the pistol was Mink's coworker's missing pistol, although the original barrel had been replaced with an "after-market" barrel.
L.L. and D.B. eventually moved to another Davenport residence, but after that residence was burglarized, the couple moved into Room 120 at the Quad City Inn in Davenport. On February 21, 2016, a motel employee discovered two pipe bombs between Rooms 119 and 120. The pipe bombs were 12-inch, galvanized steel pipes with endcaps and resembled those discovered at HFC, likewise containing Pyrodex and sets of alternating nails held together by colorful rubber bands and zip-ties. L.L. told law enforcement that she had seen Mink in the motel parking lot earlier. Subsequent investigation revealed that Mink had rented a blue, 2015 Chevrolet Spark at the Quad City Airport in Moline, Illinois, on February 20, 2016. Video surveillance from surrounding businesses showed a blue Chevrolet Spark, or a similar car, driving near the Quad City Inn around 10:00 pm that night. On the afternoon of February 21, 2016, when the bomb was discovered, Mink and a friend drove the Chevrolet Spark to Milan, Michigan, where Mink was to self-report the following day to Federal Correctional Institution, Milan (FCI Milan) for an unrelated 2016 conviction. That evening, Mink sent the following email to the City of Davenport:
R. Doc. 224, at 46. Mink admitted to law enforcement that he sent this email, although he later denied doing so at trial. Further investigation of Mink's laptop revealed that it had been used on February 21, 2016, to access news articles concerning the Quad City Inn bombs and the Davenport Emergency Services Team page. R. Doc. 219, at 351. In the past, the laptop had also been used to view pages such as: "Estes Alpha III model rocket starter set construction video"; "Paladin Press," a publisher of books similar to those found at Rock Island High School; "How to Track Down Anyone Online"; "DEADLIEST POISONS"; and "How to Vanish with a New Identity." See R. Doc. 219, at 313-50.
On February 24, 2016, law enforcement met with R.S., an individual who lived with Mink's mother until her passing in 2013. R.S. surrendered to law enforcement a safe that Mink had given him prior to reporting to FCI Milan. The safe contained a magazine loader for a firearm, a lockpick set, and a Solvent Trap Adaptor, which can be used to attach a silencer to a firearm. That same day, law enforcement met with the individual who accompanied Mink to FCI Milan in the rental car. The individual provided law enforcement with Mink's backpack, which included Mink's laptop, a vehicle tracking device, and Mink's wallet. The wallet contained a Metabank debit card. Metabank records disclosed that the card was opened under Mink's email address,...
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